Tag: police

You recall I got my clutch done at Hoddy’s, and after I got the van back it was rattling, I mean proper rattling, like the tin man having sex with an empty bean can. I wondered it it might just run in or something but after 2 weeks it was doing my head in so I went down to Hoddy’s to get it looked at.

I parked up outside wanting to be there early for the morning but was woken about 1 am by a car driving past a couple of times. I never bothered looking out but I listened and I could hear all manner of stuff going on. Then I heard this loud voice (which turned out to be a recorded alarm) shouting “You have been recorded and the police have been called and and we are continuing to monitor you!”

I did look out then, just in time to see a young lad legging it down the street and a small car with no lights on doing off after him. Quite why he ran past the car then they drove after him to pick him up I’ve no idea. Maybe burglars are really thick as shit?

Anyway, so I tried to settle down again but after about 20 minutes the police show up. 2 cars and a dog van. Well, when Jack heard the dog there was hell on and when he saw all the cops wandering around outside he went mental at the window and wanted to rip them all to pieces lol.
I opened a window and told the cops they’d missed the lads and gave them as much info as I could. Sadly about 15 minutes later another one came and asked me it all over again lol I didn’t get settled til about 3 am.

So, I get up in the morning and it’s 9 am before it dawns on me that the reason Hoddy’s hasn’t opened is that it’s bank holiday Monday…..

NEXT DAY
I do it all again. Ground hog day or what lol But at least this time I get it in and they say the crankshaft pulley has gone. £130 to replace. I said yes then rang other garages who said about the same price too and when I picked it up he showed me the old one which was indeed in pretty poor state. Sure enough when I drove away the engine sounded much better. More money I hadn’t bargained on but hey ho.

I had asked them to do the MOT too. It failed, and the main thing out of 4 was the lower suspension ball joint. However the guy was bothering more about having the wrong reflector on the rear of the van. He went on and on about it, even saying “I can’t fail you for it cos I checked, and I can’t, but it is wrong.” I found that odd and the fact he went on so much that in the end I said it’s not even an advisory, so let’s leave it. But he was still mithering me about it as I left.

So the next day I drove down to Preston to the only Robins and Day main dealer that I will visit. It flew through the MOT without problem, and they even had time to investigate the brakes for me to establish whether I can have vented disks on. Sadly, they can’t tell without stripping the brakes entirely. I suppose the moral there is if you’re not sure, get a second opinion.

As some of you know, I’ve had a miniature Christmas tree on my dashboard for about 3 years now. It’s been through 3 MOT’s, and I recently bought new decorations and lights for it. But today this nob head copper decides to blue light me leaving a local shopping park, and insists I take it down, on the grounds that “your view of the road is, in my opinion impaired.”
I replied that due to my high seating position in my camper, I probably had a much better view of the road than he did in his car. We argued for a few seconds til he pulled his trump card, saying “take it down now and we’ll forget all about it, or I’ll ticket you and you’ll be fined and get 3 points on your licence.”
Of course I had no choice but to take it down there and then, probably by doing so, giving him something to wank over tonight.

Here’s my tree, complete with angel 🙂

Odd that you can be pulled for having a Christmas tree on your dashboard, but offering a very rigid finger to a cop as you drive away seems not to be an arrestable offence….